Monday, February 19, 2007

The 1950's Pepsi Generation

Did any other ad campaign of the 1950's even approach the style, consistencey and duration of Pepsi's "Sociables" series? No. This astounding program of magazine ads lasted an entire decade and utilized the talents of some of the top artists in the field. Much credit to both Pepsi and their ad agency for sticking to their guns, sometimes tweaking the details, but never waivering from the underlying concept: that Pepsi was for young, sophisticated, successful, urban Americans; that Pepsi was about the 'new' lifestyle - sharing good times, finding romance -not in small town America, but in hip New York apartments and restaurants or trendy Hollywood homes.

Pepsi understood what the 50's generation aspired to and made sure to position themselves as the cola brand of choice. So prolific was their output of images, it sometimes seems like they commissioned a new illustration every month for the entire decade!

This week, let's take a look at a bunch of those ads... this week, let's "Meet the Sociables".

These images and a whole bunch more can be found at full size in my Pepsi Flickr set.